Gwyneth Paltrow: bracing for September?

Earlier this week, Page Six reported that Vanity Fair was preparing a cover feature on Gwyneth Paltrow but that she refused to participate, and was calling around telling her friends not to participate either. Click here for a refresher. What could G possibly be so afraid of?

I’ve since confirmed with 3 independent sources that it’s true -- Vanity Fair is working on a G piece for the September issue and she did indeed decline to comment for the magazine. The excuse, apparently, is that Vanity Fair is off-brand for her...

?????????????????

So PEOPLE Magazine is totally OK but Vanity Fair is off-brand?! Who are you Gwyneth? And what have you done with my Gwyneth?

Rumour has it, the writer is Vanessa Grigoriadis. She’s allegedly exploring why G is so polarising, why she shows up on everyone’s Hate List (for recommending $450K worth of clothing in her spring shopping guide, among other reasons) and, at the same time, why people love to hate her. G’s business practices will likely also be examined, as well as her past relationships -- including her friendships.

If it ends up being a slam piece, was it always to be a slam piece to begin with? Or did an article that started out as a profile become a slam piece because she resisted? If that’s the case, is this sh-tty celebrity strategery? If that’s the case, I hope Grigoriadis -- if she does turn out to be the writer -- shares some of details behind the negotiations leading up to G’s declining to contribute. There are, as you know, always negotiations. At least they will always try to control the story as much as they can. What questions can be asked and not asked, what subjects can be addressed and not addressed. If Grigoriadis is indeed the writer, there are subjects that G might not have been able to evade. After all, Grigoriadis produced the now infamous Britney Spears profile in Rolling Stone in 2008. Here’s a highlight paragraph from that article:

“If there is one thing that has become clear in the past year of Britney's collapse — the most public downfall of any star in history — it's that she doesn't want anything to do with the person the world thought she was. She is not a good girl. She is not America's sweetheart. She is an inbred swamp thing who chain-smokes, doesn't do her nails, tells reporters to "eat it, snort it, lick it, f-ck it" and screams at people who want pictures for their little sisters. She is not someone who can live by the most basic social rules — she is someone who, when she has had her one- and two-year-old sons taken completely out of her care, with zero visitation rights, appeared at Los Angeles' Superior Court to convince the judge to give her kids back, but then decided not to go inside, and she's someone who did this twice. She's the perfect celebrity for America in decline: Like President Bush, she just doesn't give a f-ck, but at least we won't have to clean up after her mess for the rest of our lives.”

In G’s case, there’s a lot she probably doesn’t want to talk about. Give me three names off the top of your head that she might not want to talk about. Brad Pitt, Madonna, Winona Ryder?

I don’t want the summer to go by any faster, but there may be a LOT to look forward to in September.

Attached -- Gwyneth and Chris Martin out for a walk in London. We go years and years without seeing a shot of them in the same frame, and it seems to be happening more and more now...